The Usual
by RayKat
Summary: Dealing with occultists in Mexico is just another day's work for Heinkel and Yumiko. Set in the Crossfire period. [Complete]
1. Chapter One

_A/N: This story is set in between Crossfire #2 and #3._

_Disclaimer: Crossfire and Hellsing are Hirano's, not mine._

* * *

"Where are you taking us?" Heinkel Wulf asked the man to her left. She and her partner had been in his car for nearly an hour now. Supposedly, the priest was going to fill them in on the details of their mission, but he'd spoken little since they'd met up with him.

"Mexico," he drawled, lighting another cigarette.

"What's in Mexico?" Yumiko Takagi asked from the backseat. The car had a working motor, and, by some miracle, air conditioning. This put it ahead of some of the other vehicles her and Heinkel had the pleasure in dealing with. The car's interior was a true marvel of engineering, however. The backseat was possibly one of the smallest backseats Yumiko had ever seen that was, in fact, still an actual backseat.

With Heinkel being the more long-legged of the two, it only made sense that she would sit in the front seat, and she had been considerate and scooted her seat forward. They were still left with the tricky proposition of fitting the katana back there. In the end, they had decided to simply leave one of the windows rolled part way down, and let the end of the sword stick out. If the road had currently been busier, they would have surely drawn attention to themselves like this, and the lowered window negated some of the benefits of the air conditioning. Yumiko regarded it as a blessing, however, because it let some of the cigarette smoke out of the car.

It was unusual for Yumiko and her partner to even come to North America. Typically, things on that continent were handled by the American branch of Iscariot, but they were stretched even thinner than the home office. All of their operatives were currently engaged elsewhere and they'd requested the Vatican's assistance.

Yumiko politely repeated the question. "What's in Mexico?"

"Mexicans," Father Green let out a long exhale before speaking again. "That's a big sword for a little thing like you. Where'd it come from?"

"Japan," Yumiko answered, still not content with his response to her question.

"You're Japanese," the father asked, "right?"

"I am."

"Always did like Mu Shu."

Heinkel barely stifled a laugh.

Yumiko frowned. Her other personality was awake, pacing behind her eyes. Yumie didn't want to kill the priest. She just wanted to smack him. Besides being very antisocial, such an action would have probably taken the car off the road, since he was the one who was driving. Yumiko told her to go to back to sleep as her fingers twisted in the skirt of her habit. "Mu Shu is Chinese, sir."

"If the job is in Mexico," Heinkel wondered, "why weren't we just sent to Mexico?"

"Ah, see now," Father Green stuck the cigarette out of the car and tapped some ash off, "it didn't start out like that. This gang of voodoo-hoodoo pagan creeps has been goin' around border towns, bustin' in churches, swipin' out collections and sacramentals."

"How do you know it's the work of pagans?" Heinkel asked as she retrieved a cigarette from her coat. Yumiko sighed as she heard the metallic sounds made by the lighter.

"Because they painted their heathen symbols on the doors with chicken blood. The cops said it was chicken blood, anyhow. Anyway, the last time they did it, they shot a priest who was unlucky enough to be there that night. Then they skid addled across the border." The father squinted in the bright Texas sun. "Hey, girl," he said to Heinkel, ignoring her raised brows, "there's a pair sunglasses in the glove box. You wanna be a saint and hand them here?"

She obliged. He put them on and continued. "Must say, when Bishop Landry said Rome was sending people out, I was expectin' someone a little different. Ah, here's the place." He pulled off the road, into the parking lot of a church.

"I thought we were going to Mexico?" Yumiko asked, slightly confused.

"We are." Father Green put the car in park. He stubbed out the cigarette butt in a Styrofoam coffee cup that seemed to be serving as an ashtray in one of the cup holders, then left the car. "But, first, we need to change vehicles. We'll never get across the border with that sticker of yours pokin' out the window like that. I'll be right back." He walked off toward the building.

"I don't know how anyone could think Mu Shu was Japanese," Yumiko grumbled.

Her partner shifted her position in the car seat so she could look at her. "It's nothing, Yumiko," she said, putting her sunglasses away. "Stop thinking about it."

"How would you like it if someone confused Austria and Germany?"

"People do that, anyway. And I don't think that's an accurate analogy." Heinkel took one last inhale off of the cigarette and smashed it down into the coffee cup. "Are you going to be ready to wake up Yumie when we get there?"

"Yes," Yumiko answered, brows furrowing, "why?"

The other woman shrugged, "no reason, just checking."

Yumiko frowned. "Oh, come on! It's been over two years since what happened in Palestine. You don't trust me?"

"No, of course I trust you. Don't you think I would have figured out a way to keep from working with you, by now, if I didn't?"

"I guess." Yumiko sighed.

"What is wrong you?" Heinkel's fingers twitched, wanting another cigarette, or possibly a gun. She didn't like being idle. "You've been like this since we got off the plane."

"I don't know. Jet lag? It's not like we had any time to adjust, or like we ever do."

"Which is why you should have adjusted to it." Heinkel smiled slightly, trying to lighten the mood. "You don't happen to know how Yumie's doing right now, do you?"

Yumiko was fidgeting with her cross. "No. It's not like we chat. Can you let me out? There's no room to move on the other side back here, and I'm getting muscle cramps."

Heinkel decided to let her succeed in changing the subject. She knew Yumiko didn't like talking about the other person in her head. She got out of the car and folded back the seat. Her partner took a moment to maneuver her way out the vehicle. Watching her stick her leg out, Heinkel wondered, not for the first time, how Yumiko could stand wearing stockings all the time, and how Yumie could tolerate them during battle. Heinkel had always hated the things.

She blinked, noticing she was no longer looking at the dark material, but rather the line where it ended, meeting the contrasting skin on Yumiko's thigh. Heinkel shook her head, not sure where her mind just went. She looked upwards as Yumiko finished extracting herself from the car and the skirt fell back into place. Yumiko gave her an odd look, blushing slightly. Heinkel flushed a bit herself as she realized Yumiko had caught her staring. "Sorry, I spaced for a moment," she explained. "The jet lag must have gotten to me, too."

A look of understanding came on Yumiko's face. "Jet lag," she said, nodding sympathetically. "It's an awful thing."

The conversation was ended by the honk of a horn as a white van with "St. Stephen's" painted on the side pulled up next to the car. The driver's window lowered, and Father Green stuck his hand out to make a beckoning gesture. "All right, ramblers . . . Let's get ramblin'. Let's go to Mexico."


	2. Chapter Two

The border crossing had, thankfully, been uneventful. What looked like two priests and a nun in a church van apparently seemed innocuous enough to prevent close scrutiny, or worse, search. There had been one tense moment when one of the border police had stared at Heinkel, possibly trying to determine her gender, then probably given up. Yumiko couldn't really blame him, she'd been similarly confused the first time she'd seen the androgyne.

"Are we getting close?" She asked Father Green after some time had passed, trying to decide if it was time to rouse Yumie.

"Couple more miles - y'all gettin' antsy or something?"

"No," she lied. Her stomach did its usual sinking as she started to call to her other half.

"How did you learn the pagans' location, Father Green?" Heinkel inquired, lightly patting herself down, making sure things were in place under her coat. She'd have to lose it before the assault began. It would be just too damn hot to allow her to be effective.

"One of the parishioners, neighborhood watch type fellow, tried staking out a church that hadn't been hit, yet. One night he got lucky."

"And he followed them all the way here?" Heinkel raised a brow. She looked back at Yumiko, but she wasn't paying attention.

"Went a slightly different route as I recall, but yep..." Father Green's fingers drummed the dashboard as he hummed softly.

"He didn't think to call the police?"

"Said they wouldn't go 'cross the border; so he thought he should do it. Kinda reckless, now that I think about it."

"And you're sure his information was right, that he wasn't lying?" The thought of shooting up the wrong people wasn't particularly appealing.

"Look Sister, uh, Wulf, he's one of the most honest people I know, reckless, but honest. Hey, check it out, we're almost there!"

Sister Wulf stared at him for a few more moments before looking at Yumiko again. Her fingers were playing with her cross as she whispered something, eyes lowered. She'd seen her partner do this on occasion before changing. Heinkel had asked her, once, what she prayed for. The answer had been that it was for several things, that Yumie would only kill those truly deserving, for the souls of those she did, for Heinkel's soul and safety, for Yumie's soul (if she had one), and for her own, for setting Yumie free. Heinkel had questioned why Yumiko hadn't bothered including her own safety on the list. She'd never really answered.

Father Green parked the van on the side of the degraded road. "Seeing as you ladies don't seem to have come here for the sake of mediation, I'll just be waitin' here."

"That would be the best idea," Heinkel told him.

He pointed ahead. "See that house with the orangey roof? That's it."

Heinkel took stock of the dwelling. From here, she couldn't see any signs of use.

"Are you sure?"

"As I am of Christ in Heaven."

"Right, then. Yumiko! It's time."

Yumiko glanced at her and nodded. She turned to the priest. "Father Green, I'm going to leave my glasses in here, could you please make sure nothing happens to them?"

Father Green looked perplexed. "Sure, but don't you need them to see?"

"No," she replied, her fingers on the edges of the frames. "That's not what I need them for." She removed the glasses.

The transformation was as seamless as it was jarring. While features of the face had not changed, the difference in expression might have temporarily fooled the onlooker into thinking otherwise. Yumie grinned at Heinkel and asked, "so, who are we here for?"

As Heinkel informed her of the circumstances, Yumie handed the confused priest the glasses and yanked off the veil. She shook out her hair and looked around for her sword. Heinkel shrugged out of her coat while she spoke and replaced her sunglasses. Yumie's smile grew wider as she located her weapon. After Heinkel had finished filling her in, Yumie remarked, "in other words, the usual."

"Pretty much," her partner agreed as she reached for the door handle. "Ready?"

"Always," Yumie answered, taking the katana from its saya.

"Then let's do this."

As she and Yumie stepped out the vehicle, Heinkel looked at Father Green once more. "Hopefully, this won't take very long."

"Good luck to you two, Sisters," he told them with a smile. "God bless you."

"Danke."

They walked toward the house. "We should expect guns, with that one priest getting shot," Yumie said, distaste coloring the last half of the sentence.

Heinkel nodded. "I'll be ahead of you."

"Any clue how many?"

"Nein."

"I guess there will be surprises for both sides, then." Yumie said. "The Communists were too easy, anyway."

They both grew quiet as they walked the last yards to the house, and Heinkel drew a Desert Eagle. The windows appeared mostly boarded up, but there were gaps between the boards that were large enough to have let anyone inside see their approach. Unfortunately, going in plain sight seemed to be their only option. Heinkel grabbed the door handle and nodded once before checking if it was locked.

She never found out the answer to that question.

A shot exploded from the other side of the door, inches from Heinkel's head. She jumped back, grabbed her second gun, and opened fire as the door flew open. Her bullets took down the first man that came through, and the second. The third was relieved of his head, and most of his shoulder area, by Yumie's blade.

Things became quiet again, no one else leaving the house. An accented male voice yelled from one of the windows. "You're the Vatican bitches, right?"

"That's us, heathen scum," Yumie retorted.

Heinkel addressed the speaker. "If you bring out what you've stolen, we'll take it and go. No one else will die," she told him, lying.

In response, shots were fired from another window. The sisters rushed for the open door, but it was shut with a slam. "Pathetic cowards," Yumie snarled as the katana split the door. The part still on hinges swung inward, the other half simply fell. She and Heinkel entered the building.

Heinkel tried to make a quick count of exactly how many people were in the room. She thought seven, but it was chaos. Stunned momentarily by the sisters' unorthodox entrance, the gang soon regained their senses and regrouped, attacking from either side of the duo. Yumie appeared utterly unfazed, charging into the fray. The first person to point a gun at her lost his lower arm, then his head.

The familiar sounds of shouts and gunshot filled Heinkel's ears as she pulled her body out of the path of a bullet. She put a round in the shooter's head while muttering "Amen," then turned her attention toward the doorway, where two women and a man were headed. She took out one woman, and then she was distracted by a man coming at her side with a knife. He received a shot in the chest for his troubles. Heinkel looked back toward the doorway but the deserters were gone.

Turning in Yumie's direction, she watched her partner dance with another knife user. He moved in an aggressive circle around her, occasionally trying to lunge ahead. Yumie would smirk, swing her sword heavily, and he'd jerk back. Heinkel realized Yumie was playing with him. "Hurry up!" She demanded, "We don't want the other two to get away."

Yumie gave her a disappointed look and then switched back to her usual speed the next time the man tried to slash her. The katana entered his body through his collarbone and exited through the opposite side of his rib cage in a spray of red. Yumie stepped over the pieces of the man as she moved toward the exit.

"Amateurs," she remarked, heading out the door. "I'd hoped for more."

As she stepped forward, a bullet grazed her arm. Yumie growled and swung out, catching the source with the long blade and halving it. The woman's body fell apart.

Heinkel gave Yumie a concerned glance. "You alright?"

"I'm fine. It's nothing," she answered, even as she winced.

"You asked for more." Her eyes moved over the yard in front of the house. "I didn't hear a car. He couldn't have gotten far."

The two searched the house, and the back and sides, but they couldn't find a trace of the man, nor any a sign of the stolen property. Then, Yumie had a thought. "Wait, what if he saw the van and went to it?"

Heinkel looked disturbed, "Father Green. Let's go!"

They ran back to the van. As they approached, they heard a voice they recognized as the one from the window coming from behind the vehicle. They sped up as he began to shout.

"Just two nuns, you said! Harmless! Harmless, my ass. They wiped out my people like they were nothing! This is all your fault! This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't killed that priest!"

"I had to! He recognized me!"

The sisters stopped short as they realized that the second speaker was the man who'd driven them here. It was Father Green. They exchanged shocked glances and slowed, listening to the conversation as the father continued.

"Don't blame me because your people couldn't handle two girls."

"No one's come, they must have been killed. Because of those 'two girls', my whole crew is dead!"

Heinkel leaned in toward Yumie as they reached the van. "I'll go one side," she whispered, "you take the other."

Yumie nodded and they split up.

"Listen, partner," Father Green told the man, "I'd settle down if I were you."

"I will not settle down. This is your fault and I -" he was cut off by a gunshot.

Yumie came around the van in time to see Father Green shoot his partner a second time. He looked up and smiled. "Hello there, little lady. Have fun?"

"Tons," she answered, advancing toward him, "and I'm about to have more, disgusting traitor."

Father Green leveled his revolver at her. "You're gonna stay right there. And, if you try to run, I've got six little friends and they can all run faster than you can." She flicked her wrist underhand as she lunged forward, swatting the gun out his hand with the flat part of the sword. "Christ, girl! How'd you do that?"

She smirked as she moved closer, "ancient Chinese secret. You should be thankful your hand wasn't still attached."

"It's wrong to take the Lord's name in vain," Heinkel said from behind him. "It's also wrong to lie and steal from your own people. Wouldn't you agree, Yumie?"

"Most definitely," she replied, raising the sword. "Greed is a deadly sin. You should have known that, Father." She pronounced his title like an insult as she prepared to take off his head. He dropped to his knees and shrieked.

"Wait, Yumie!" Heinkel exclaimed, "hold on!"

"But why?"

Heinkel put a finger to her lips, asking for silence while she pointed at the father.

It was then that Yumie heard the noise coming from the priest's pocket. She leaned forward threateningly and sneered. "Answer the phone."

Father Green's hand shook as it took the cell phone from his pocket. He pressed the talk button with a trembling finger and held the phone to his face. "H-hello? The people from the Vatican? Uh, look, Bishop, this isn't a very good time."

"Bishop? Give me that!" Heinkel ordered him, grabbing the phone out of the priest's hand. "Hello, Bishop Landry? This is Sister Heinkel Wulf. I'm from the Vatican. Guten tag . . . Yes . . . No. . . . Listen, Bishop, I have some disturbing news about Father Green."

Yumie smiled as she continued to hold the sword on the father.

"Well, I think it might be better explained in person . . . Where are we? We're in Mexico . . . Yes, I did say Mexico . . . Well, you'd really be better off asking Father Green that. I need to go now. We'll be meeting soon."

She hung up the phone. "It seems you're in a lot of trouble, Father Green, but I'm sure you were already aware of that."

"What are you going to do with me?" He asked, fear in his voice.

"We're going to put you in the van and take you back to the states," Heinkel told him, "where you can tell the good bishop everything yourself."

Yumie frowned. "We're not going to kill him?"

"No, not unless the bishop wants us to."

The corners of Yumie's mouth turned up a bit as a thought struck her. "Can we at least tie him up?"


	3. Epilogue

_Disclaimer: Crossfire and Hellsing are Hirano's, not mine._

* * *

It had ultimately been decided not to tie the priest up during the trip back. Instead, Yumie sat next to him in the back of the van, pointing his own gun at him whenever he breathed in a way she disapproved of. She didn't worry about leaving fingerprints. Unlike the father, she wore gloves.

Patiently encouraged by the muzzle of a Desert Eagle on the back of his skull, he'd given the location of the stolen property and explained his involvement with the gang to the Bishop. He scouted out locations, told them about the layouts of the churches and when the best times to strike would be. He would receive a healthy portion of the money. They would receive the rest of the money and supplies for their occult activities. Sometimes, he would accompany them on the jobs. It had been an accident that he'd run into someone who knew him one night, and had killed the man to prevent him from telling anyone about what he'd seen.

It had been by sheer coincidence that Father Green had been asked to pick the sisters up at the airport. He, the pair had learned, was only supposed to deliver them to the bishop's office. Instead, he had tried to use the opportunity to try and dispose of the interlopers by quickly arranging an ambush. He was sure the group could handle two women, two nuns. He had been mistaken about that.

The Bishop had declined their offer to send Father Green to his final punishment. When asked why, he'd smiled benignly and answered, "you Sisters have done so much already, today. I believe secular means will be sufficient in this matter. You must realize that this is Texas."

The sisters now stood outside Bishop Landry's office, watching as Father Green was led away by police.

"So," Yumie asked after they had gone, "what do you want to do now? We're here for a few more days."

"I don't know," Heinkel responded. "I suppose we could sight see."

"And see what?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure there's something. The Alamo?"

"No," Yumie replied. "I think that's too far from here."

"Well, I guess we could -," Heinkel was interrupted by the ring of her cell phone.

"Hold on." She retrieved the phone from her coat pocket. "Hello, Chief . . . Father Renaldo? No, we haven't seen the news lately, we've been busy. We completed our mission early. Why do you ask? Yes, of course. Goodbye."

She hung up the phone. "That was Father Renaldo. We need get back to Rome right away."

"Why?" Yumie asked, "what's happened?"

"He didn't go into detail. Come on, we have to go to the airport. I'm going to tell Bishop Landry we're leaving." She headed to the office and knocked.

"Come in."

Heinkel opened the door and explained that they would have to be going back.

"Already?" He asked, amazed. "You two haven't been here a day."

"That's just the way it always is, Your Grace," Yumie responded, shrugging.

Heinkel nodded. "For us, that's just the usual."

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**A/N:** And so, there they go, back to the Vatican for _Crossfire_ #3.

This storyoriginally began as a response forto a fic challenge with quotes from"_From Dusk Till Dawn_", andtook on a life of its own. Feedback is always appreciated. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

A big thanks goes to kelles for beta reading.

**Additional disclaimer:** I do not own "_From Dusk Till Dawn_".


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